Starting from thatch

It took 15 years and £1m to build this Hebridean hideaway with spectacular views over hills and sea — and it was worth it

S marks the spot: the curvy design of Oran na Mara makes the most of its location (David Barbour)

All they wanted was a place to relax. But building their dream holiday home on
a remote Scottish island didn’t come easy for Paul and Helen Honeywell.
After two years, they couldn’t get a builder to give them a quote; they had
to fly dynamite in by helicopter; and their costs soared. Yet the result, a
contemporary take on a Hebridean blackhouse, is as striking as its setting:
on Harris, overlooking the white sands of one of the world’s best beaches,
Scarista.

“I wanted to build a house that would be different,” says Paul, who is chief
executive of a technology company. “The idea was to create a lasting
legacy.”

It’s a far cry from the couple’s main home, a hobby farm in Northamptonshire,
where they live with their two Norfolk terriers and a menagerie of miniature
donkeys and ponies, pygmy goats, chickens and ducks. They also have seven
grown-up